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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, July 28th, 2023 - 37 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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We need a resilience ministry to provide a semblance of intelligent design for Aotearoa long-term. That's the impression I get from reading this: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/sustainable-future/lake-onslow-and-the-politics-of-power
Sounds promising, but then read the comments from energy experts below the report! Reminds me of the ancient fable of the blind people describing an elephant after each feeling a different part of it. Complex systems require lots of brain power to comprehend. A nationwide resilience strategy encompasses a multi-generational perspective, climate-change, energy tech, economic analysis, stakeholder psychology – can't expect civil servants to be able to do that on basic education alone.
I read the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment's report on Electricity System Pathways a few weeks ago and came to the conclusion that Onslow made no sense because it is far too expensive.
Instead we should close Tiwai Point which frees up enough electricity supply such that there would probably be enough time for battery storage technology to develop so that Onslow would never be needed.
Over this period NZ would, of course, continue to invest in and improve (make more efficient) the electricity distribution network, invest in power saving initiatives and additional renewable generation (mostly solar).
Nuclear power is expensive compared with renewables when realistic nuclear power plant building costs and massive decommissioning costs are included (which they usually aren't) and is not needed in the above scenario.
It may be (in the above scenario) that NZ needs to keep a gas or coal power station that can generate around 4-5% of NZ power needs as a reserve that is turned on very occasionally i.e. perhaps 1-2% of generation would be fossil fuel based.
https://pce.parliament.nz/publications/future-electricity-system-pathways-for-new-zealand/
Yes that seems like a sensible strategy.
No future government can just command either Meridian to redirect Manapouri power production, any more than we can command Rio Tinto to close Tiwai Point.
This isn't the 1970s and they aren't coming back.
National may well hate the NZBattery Lake Onslow option, but let's see how they go when they get a 2021 situation when there's no wind, a long cloudy system killing solar, and it's winter so your main draw is to Huntly north.
At that point Transpower is in trouble.
And at that point National will need to show they have an answer that was better than the one they killed off.
Of course the Govt can command Rio to close Tiwai.
They've threatened to close it themselves so many times it became…monotonous.
Yes the Government can do anything they have the numbers in the house to pass…if they are willing to shoulder any and all consequences.
Meridian is 52% state owned. I would have thought that gives the government a great deal of influence. The government could certainly direct that Tiwai pay the same price as other consumers which would see Tiwai closed soon after.
BG….exactly. All the blather about Green (so called) Hydrogen..is just a future fantasy.
Far better to go here !
Sadly…and for "reasons", Labour seems to have ignored.
Agree Psyc….so-called green hydrogen relies on mythical "excess" renewable power being available. Hydrogen takes more energy to produce that it creates.
There do seem to be some limited uses for hydrogen in trucks and trains, but cars have taken the electric route and that won't change.
Thanks for noting the PCE report on electricity supply. I didn't know about it.
Sounds like Onslow is very costly.
The actual conclusions Simon Upton came to.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/492094/not-enough-info-to-compare-lake-onslow-to-other-power-options-parliamentary-commissioner-for-the-environment
Here's an in-depth interview on nuclear power tech: https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/24/the-left-goes-nuclear/
Joshua outlines his generational perspective:
His focus is primarily waste-disposal, yet he covers other dimensions as well. Any policy shift by the Greens will have to be fine-tuned toward the future on a realistic basis.
It may have already been mentioned on this site, but I have come across a new RNZ podcast series called "Undercurrent". It is a 7 part series about mis and disinformation in NZ and the effects it has already had on NZ discourse plus the probable effects it will have on the General Election. I have yet to listen to them but it sounds like a fascinating subject – not to mention deeply concerning.
An intro by Suzie Ferguson:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018899153/undercurrent-rnz-doco-series-on-disinformation-launches
Link to actual series:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/undercurrent
Seems to me one person's mis/dis/mal /information is anothers truth dont you think ?Russiagate turned out to be a concoction which very large news networks treated as true for years the hunter biden laptop story was considered not factual but in fact was absolutely factual to cite two comparatively recent examples .
The twitter files and Missouri vs Biden reveals an everexpanding network of so called mis/information experts advising gov depts in the US gov depts incidentally weaponized against ordinary citizens and political opponents of the DNC .
Deeply concerning indeed !! I might be wrong but i doubt Suzi Ferguson will be covering mainstream " establishment " misinformation but will be fearmongering about Qanon antivax etc etc
As you correctly note, I doubt if Suzi and the propaganda crew will be investigating the MSM's own misinformation.
Iraq and weapons of Mass Destruction anyone?
I don’t trust a word they say after years and years of misinformation.
"Iraq and weapons of Mass Destruction anyone?"
That is another subject altogether. So we sit on our bums and do nothing about the ominous spread of disinformation wherever it comes from and the inevitable violence that goes with it because umm… WMDs in Iraq umpteen years ago wot we all know didn't exist.
Sheesh! You are as much part of the problem as weston.
No. It is not about "Qanon antivax etc. etc." although since that is how it started here in NZ it does get mentioned. It is about the fast moving and insidious spread of disinformation in general together with the fanning of extreme hatred, racism, misogyny, conspiracy theories, antisemitism, white supremacy and continuing CC denial. There have already been individuals overseas who have been murdered and it is only a matter of time before a NZer or two fall victim – likely to be politicians. That is not my assumption but that of experts who have been researching the subject.
You can scoff as much as you like but my observation is that you are part of the problem by effectively denying the existence of this "deeply concerning" phenomenon brought to us by the advent of social media.
Edit: we have already seen a major example. The Ch.Ch massacre.
No scoffing meant by me.
Merely observing the litany of lies propagated by the MSM. It's a bit rich when they preach about misinformation and disinformation when a mirror and some humility would suffice.
hunter biden laptop story
And quite the story it is, too.
/
Forensic analysis
In March 2022, The Washington Post published the findings of two forensic information analysts it had retained to examine 217 gigabytes of data provided to the paper on a hard drive by Republican activist Jack Maxey, who represented that its contents came from the laptop. One of the analysts characterized the data as a "disaster" from a forensics standpoint. The analysts found that people other than Hunter Biden had repeatedly accessed and copied data for nearly three years; they also found evidence that people other than Hunter Biden had accessed and written files to the drive, both before and after the New York Post story.[3] In September 2020, someone created six new folders on the drive, including with the names "Biden Burism", "Big Guy File", "Salacious Pics Package" and "Hunter. Burisma Documents". One of the analysts found evidence someone may have accessed the drive contents from a West Coast location days after The New York Post published their stories about the laptop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden_laptop_controversy#Forensic_analysis
Do keep up.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22-07-2023/#comment-1960826
Test to see if reels embed, and because it's funny as
https://www.facebook.com/reel/656952106366806
Hypernormalisation – Adam Curtis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation
Does this sound like neoliberalism in New Zealand since the 1990s?
https://www.adbusters.org/articles-coded/what-is-hypernormalization
You're touting a documentary.
Link?
It is a BBC documentary
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p04b183c/hypernormalisation
I think it can be purchased as well.
A geo-blocked link?
Lazy.
Is it necessary to be abusive. ?
Wow!
Thanks for that Ed .always a fan of Adam Curtis
Long,so I'm watching it in serial form on YouTube ,easy as
It's fascinating
Hypernormalisation is like a parable for our times.
My favourite of all his films is Century of Self – which explains, better than anyone else has, how and why we abandoned collectivism and idealism for individualism and managerialism.
I'll look out for it
Thanks !!
I was able to watch it, no issues?
from the link when I tried to play it.
It can be seen if using a VPN (re-set to UK).
Love his (Adam Curtis) work.
Have you seen this 6 part series? Cant get you out of my head
Yes I have seen this, The Chairman. Another exceptional documentary. The soundtrack and clips are all part of the magic he weaves. Thanks to him, I can make some sense of the world we live in.
Like Hypernormalisation, 'Can't get you out of my Head' looks at the paralysis that has taken over the west since the advent of neoliberalism.
It is a scathing attack on the Liberal Class.
Another exceptional documentary series indeed, Ed.
I love the way he goes back in time, looks at the far larger picture and brings it altogether.
Speaking of making sense of the world we live in, check out this interview/discussion in the link below. Apparently, we are all living in a simulation and what we know of our universe and beyond is merely the headset of our virtual reality.
Grandfathered by the Manchurian Candidate I guess, who was son of Orwell. The kind of overview that seems nicely clued-up at times & skates on too-thin ice elsewhere…
However any folks not yet deconditioned could have their consciousness raised for the better, perhaps. Media as melange can be catalytic for some. Others would seek something deeper, some kind of theme or moral or collective intelligence. But I guess any alternative to the msm is worth the effort, huh?
I mean, we've had a century of the culture of individualism. Idiosyncrasy has become rampant since I was young. The monoculture of normalcy had hegemony until the mid-'60s when thing started to go crazy all over the place simultaneously. Normal people freaked out big-time, got increasingly paranoid. Any perception of hypernormalcy as status quo hasn't been valid since. However, we must credit the perseverance of Labour & National's traditional collusion in the pretence that hypernormalisation works. You can measure the suckers in each new poll…